Reading Night World: Book One: Secret Vampire
by SisterOfAnElvenWannabe
Summary: Our favorite characters read Secret Vampire before it happens. Please R/R. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own, any characters or anything in bold. The people in this story are: Poppy, James, Cliff, Poppy's mom, Poppy's dad, Phil, Ash, Rowan, Kestrel, Jade, Mary Lynette, Mark, Thea, Blaise, Eric, Gillian, David, Rashel, Quinn, Thierry, Hannah, Jez, Morgead, Delos, Maggie, Illiana, Galen, and Keller. I know it's a lot.**

With a great flash twenty-eight people suddenly appeared in a previously empty room.

All except three of the people looked very young, teenagers.

A buzz of confused and frightened talk broke out in the room.

"What's going on?"

"What's happening?"

"Where are we?"

"Everyone calm down" Somehow the quiet voice broke through all the other voices and everyone turned towards the speaker. He was a young looking man, about nineteen with white-blonde hair and sad looking eyes.

"I don't know why we are are here anymore than any of you do but panicking won't help, why don't we all introduce ourselves"

"I'm Thierry, Thierry Descoudres"

There was a moment of silence before a wiry looking boy stepped forward.

"James Rasmussen"

after everyone was done introducing themselves they all stood around awkwardly until Poppy pointed at a table in the middle of the room. "Hey' there's a bunch of books and a note over there"

She picked up the note and read aloud, "If you're reading this note, you are a part of the books on the table, please read them, you will not be able to go back home until you are finished"

No one had any idea what to say to that as they sat in the comfortable chairs that were in the room. When no one else made a move toward the books, Thierry picked up the first one and began to read.

**It was on the first day of summer vacation that Poppy found out she was going to die."**

Everyone gasped, except Ash, Quinn, Morgead, Jez, and Delos.

"What?" shrieked Poppy as the same word was echoed by her family and James.

"How?" demanded Phil.

Thierry shook his head,

"That's all it says"

**"It happened on Monday, the first **_**real **_**day of vacation (the weekend didn't count.)"**

**"Poppy woke up feeling gloriously weightless and thought, **_**No school. **_**Sunlight was streaming in the window, turning the sheer hangings around her bed filmy gold. Poppy pushed them aside and jumped out of bed and winced.**

**Ouch. That pain in her stomach again. Sort of a gnawing, as if something were eating its way toward her back.**"

_I have that pain now... _Poppy thought nervously.

**"It helped a little if she bent over."**

**"No, Poppy thought. I refuse to be sick during summer vacation. I _refuse."_**

**"A little power of positive thinking is what's needed here."**

**"Grimly, doubled over – think positive, idiot!"**

There was a ripple of weak laughter at this.

"– **she made her way down the hall to the turquoise-and-gold-tiled bathroom. At first she thought she was going to throw up, but then the pain eased as suddenly as it had come. Poppy straightened and regarded her tousled reflection triumphantly.**

**"Stick with me, kid, and you'll be fine,"**

**"she whispered to it, and gave a conspiratorial wink. **

"Talking to yourself is a sign of craziness you know" James said, struggling to keep his tone light.

**Then she leaned forward, seeing her own green eyes narrow in suspicion. There on her nose were four freckles. Four and a half, if she were completely honest, which Poppy North usually was. How childish, how- **_**cute! **_**Poppy stuck her tongue out at herself and then turned away with great dignity, without bothering to comb the wild coppery curls that clustered over her head."**

**"She maintained the dignity until she got to the kitchen, where Phillip, her twin brother, was eating Special K. Then she narrowed her eyes again, this time at him. It was bad enough to be small, slight, and curly-haired- to look, in fact, as much like an elf as anything she'd ever seen sitting on a buttercup in a children's picture book-but to have a twin who was tall, Viking-blond, and classically handsome...well, that just showed a certain deliberate malice in the makeup of the universe, didn't it?**

**"Hello, Phillip," she said in a voice heavy with menace.**

Phil shook his head, "not scary Poppy"{ he too had to struggle to keep a steady voice.

**"Phillip, who was used to his sister's moods, was unimpressed. He lifted his gaze from the comic section of the **_**L. A Times **_**for a moment."**

**"Poppy had to admit that he had nice eyes: questing green eyes with very dark lashes. They were the only thing the twins had in common."**

**"Hi," Phillip said flatly, and went back to the comics. Not many kids Poppy knew read the newspaper, but that was Phil all over. Like Poppy, he'd been a junior at El Camino High last year, and unlike Poppy, he'd made straight **_**A'**_**s while starring on the football team, the hockey team, and the baseball team. Also serving as class president. One of Poppy's greatest joys in life was teasing him. She thought he was too straitlaced."**

**"Just now she giggled and shrugged, giving up the menacing look."**

**"Where's Cliff and Mom?" Cliff Hilgard was their stepfather of three years and even straighter-laced then Phil.**

"What lovely descriptions you give us" Phil said dryly.

**"Cliff's at work. Mom's getting dressed. You'd better eat something or she'll get on your case."**

**"Yeah, yeah..." Poppy went on tiptoe to rummage through a cupboard. Finding a box of Frosted Flakes, she thrust a hand in and delicately pulled out one flake. She ate it dry."**

**It wasn't **_**all **_**bad being short and elfin. She did a few dance steps to the refrigerator, shaking the cereal box in rhythm.**

**"I'm a...sex pixie!" she sang, giving it a foot-stomping rhythm.**

The room again rippled with laughter at this.

"Poppy!" exclaimed her mother.

**"No, you're not," Phillip said with devastating calm.**

**"And why don't you put some clothes on?"**

**Holding the refrigerator door open, Poppy looked down at herself. She was wearing the oversize T-shirt she'd slept in. It covered her like a minidress."**

**"This **_**is **_**clothes," she said serenely, taking a Diet Coke from the fridge."**

**There was a knock at the kitchen door. Poppy saw who it was through the screen.**

**"Hi, James! C'mon in."**

"I'm a bit afraid to hear my description" said James

**"James Rasmussen came in, taking off his wraparound Ray-Bans. Looking at him, Poppy felt a pang-as always. **

James looked at her confused and she blushed.

**It didn't matter that she had seen him every day, practically, for the past ten years. She still felt a quick sharp throb in her chest, somewhere between sweetness and pain, when first confronted with him every morning."**

**"It wasn't just his outlaw good looks, which always reminded her vaguely of James Dean. He had silky light brown hair, a subtle, intelligent face, and gray eyes that were alternately intense and cool. He was the handsomest boy at El Camino High, but that wasn't it, that wasn't what Poppy responded to. It was something **_**inside **_**him, something mysterious and compelling and always just out of reach. It made her heart beat fast and her skin tingle."**

"observant" Thierry muttered, to quiet for the humans or witches. to hear.

**"Phillip felt differently. As soon as James came in, he stiffened and his face went cold. Electric dislike flashed between the two boys."**

**"Then James smiled faintly, as if Phillip's reaction amused him."Hi."**

**"Hi." Phil said, not thawing in the least. Poppy had the strong sense that he'd like to bundle her up and rush her out of the room."**

**"Phillip always overdid the protective-brother bit when James was around."So how's Jacklyn and Michaela?" he added nastily."**

Poppy frowned, sat the mention of the two girls.

**"James considered."Well, I don't really know."**

**"You don't **_**know? **_**Oh, yeah, you always drop your girlfriends just before summer vacation. Leaves you free to maneuver, right?"**

**"Of course," James said blandly. He smiled.**

Then she smiled.

**Phillip glared at him with unabashed hatred.**

**Poppy, for her part, was seized by joy. Goodbye, Jacklyn; goodbye Michaela. Goodbye to Jacklyn's elegant long legs and Michaela's amazing pneumatic chest."**

**"This was going to be a wonderful summer.**

**Many people thought Poppy and James's relationship platonic. This wasn't true. Poppy had known for years that she was going to marry him."**

Everyone in the room besides those who knew Poppy burst into laughter, the others were to worried about her to do the same. Poppy blushed fiercely.

**"It was one of two great ambitions, the other being to see the world. She just hadn't gotten around to informing James yet. Right now he still thought he liked long-legged girls with salon fingernails in Italian pumps."**

The laughter increased at this.

**"Is that a new CD?" she said, to distract him from his stare out with his future brother-in-law."**

**"James hefted it."It's the new Ethnotechno release."**

**Poppy cheered. "More Tuva throat singers-I can't **_**wait. **_**Let's go listen to it."**

"I still can't believe you actually _like _that stuff" Phil grimaced.

**But just then her mother walked in. Poppy's mother was cool, blond, and perfect, like an Alfred Hitchcock heroine.**

Poppy's mother attempted a smile, "well my description is nice at least"

**She normally wore an expression of effortless efficiency. Poppy, heading out of the kitchen, nearly ran into her.**

**"Sorry-morning!"**

**"Hold on a minute," Poppy's mother said, getting hold of Poppy by the back of her T-shirt. "Good morning, Phil; good morning, James," she added. Phil said good morning and James nodded, ironically polite.**

**"Has everybody had breakfast?" Poppy's mother asked, and when the boys said they had, she looked at her daughter. "And what about you?" she asked, gazing into Poppy's face.**

**Poppy rattled the Frosted Flakes box and her mother winced. "Why don't you at least put milk on them?"**

**"Better this way," Poppy said firmly, but when her mother gave her a little push toward the refrigerator, she went and got a quart carton of low fat milk.**

**"What are you planning to do with your first day of freedom?" her mother said, glancing from James to Poppy.**

**"Oh, I don't know." Poppy looked at James. "Listen to some music; maybe go up to the hills? Or drive to the beach?"**

**"Whatever you want," James said. "We've got all summer."**

**The summer stretched out in front of Poppy, hot and golden and resplendent. It smelled like pool chlorine and sea salt; it felt like warm grass under her back. Three whole months, she thought. That's forever. Three months is forever.**

"Hardly" Thierry and Quinn muttered at the same time.

**It was strange that she was actually thinking this when it happened.**

"When what happened?" asked Poppy nervously.

**"We could check out the new shops at the Village-" she was beginning, when suddenly the pain struck and her breath caught in her throat.**

**It was bad-a deep, twisting burst of agony that made her double over. The milk carton flew from her fingers and everything went gray.**

"That's the end of the chapter" Thierry said quietly. Poppy's mother practically snatched the book from him, desperate to find out what happened to her baby girl.

**Hope you liked it! Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or anything in bold after the title.**

**Chapter 1**

Poppy's mother's voice shook slightly as she began to read.

**"Poppy!" Poppy could hear her mother's voice, but she couldn't see anything. The kitchen floor was obscured by dancing black dots.**

Everyone, (except a few of the coldest vampires) was staring at Poppy worriedly.

**"Poppy, are you all right?" Now Poppy felt her mother's hands grasping her upper arms, holding her anxiously. The pain was easing and her vision was coming back.**

**As she straightened up, she saw James in front of her. His face was almost expressionless, but Poppy knew him well enough to recognize the worry in his eyes."**

Poppy attempted a smile, "aww you're worried about me"

**"He was holding the milk carton, she realized. He must have caught it on the fly as she dropped it-amazing reflexes, Poppy thought vaguely. Really amazing.**

"That was stupid" Quinn said roughly, "to do that in front of humans"

James glared at him. "One, it hasn't happened yet and two I was probably a bit destracted by my best friend collapsing!"

Meanwhile, the Poppy, her family, Mary Lynette, Mark, Eric, Hannah and David gaped at each other, all thinking the same thing _"humans?"_

**"Phillip was on his feet."Are you okay? What happened?"**

**"I-don't know." Poppy looked around, then shrugged, embarrassed. Now that she felt better she wished they weren't all staring at her so hard. The way to deal with the pain was to ignore it, to not think about it."**

**"It's just this stupid pain-I think its gastrowhatchmacallit. You know something I ate."**

**"Poppy's mother gave her daughter the barest fraction of a shake."Poppy, this is not gastroenteritis. You were having some pain before-nearly a month ago, wasn't it? Is this the same kind of pain?"**

**Poppy squirmed uncomfortably. As a matter of fact, the pain had never really gone away. Some how, in the excitement of end-of-the-year activities, she'd managed to disregard it, and by now she was used to working around it."**

**"Sort of," she temporized. But that was enough for Poppy's mother."**

**"She gave Poppy a little squeeze and headed for the kitchen telephone."I know you don't like doctors, but I'm calling Dr. Franklin. I want him to take a look at you. This isn't something we can ignore."**

**"Oh, Mom, it's vacation..."**

"Poppy, this is more important than vacation" her mother said.

**Her mother covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Poppy, this is nonnegotiable. Go get dressed."**

**Poppy groaned, but she could see it was no use. She beckoned to James, who was looking thoughtfully into a middle distance."**

**"Let's at least listen to the CD before I have to go."**

**He glanced at the CD as if he'd forgotten it, and put down the milk carton. Phillip followed them into the hallway.**

**"Hey, buddy, you wait out here while she gets dressed."**

**James barely turned. "Get a life, Phil," he said almost absently.**

Phil glared at James.

**"Just keep your hands off my sister, you deve."**

**Poppy just shook her head as she went into her room. As if James cared about seeing her undressed.**

**"If only, she thought grimly, pulling a pair of shorts out of a drawer. She stepped into them, still shaking her head. James was her best friend, her very best friend, and she was his. But he'd never shown even the slightest desire to get his hands on her. Sometimes she wondered if he realized she was a girl."**

James grinned crookedly,

"of course I realize you're a girl"

**"Someday I'm going to make him see,"**

**"She thought, and shouted out the door for him.**

**James came in and smiled at her. It was a smile other people rarely saw, not a taunting or ironic grin, but a nice little smile, slightly crooked.**

**"Sorry about the doctor thing," Poppy said.**

**"No. You should go." James gave her a keen glance. "Your mom's right, you know. This has been going on way too long. You've lost weight; it's keeping you up at night-"**

**Poppy looked at him, startled. She hadn't told anybody about how the pain was worse at night, not even James. But sometimes James just knew things. As if he could read her mind.**

Quinn made an annoyed noise.

**"I just know you, that's all," he said, and then gave her a mischievous sideways glance as she stared at him. He unwrapped the CD.**

**Poppy shrugged and flopped on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Anyway, I wish Mom would let me have one day of vacation," she said. She craned her neck to look at James speculatively. "I wish I had a mom like yours. Mine's always worrying and trying to fix me."**

**"And mine doesn't really care if I come or go. So which is worse?" James said wryly.**

**"Your parents let you have your own apartment."**

**"In a building they own. Because it's cheaper than hiring a manager." James shook his head, his eyes on the CD he was putting in the player. "Don't knock your parents, kid. You're luckier than you know."**

James nodded, agreeing with himself.

**Poppy thought about that as the CD started. She and James both liked trance-the underground electronic sound that had come from Europe. James liked the techno beat. Poppy loved it because it was real music, raw and unpasteurized, made by people who believed in it. People, who had the passion, not people who had the money.**

**Besides, world music made her feel a part of other places. She loved the differentness of it, the alienness.**

**Come to think of it, maybe that was what she liked about James, too. His differentness. **

"wait..." said Ash, "James is an alien?"

**She tilted her head to look at him as the strange rhythms of Burundi drumming filled the air.**

**She knew James better than anyone, but there was always something, something about him that was closed off to her. Something about him that nobody could reach.**

**Other people took it for arrogance, or coldness, or aloofness, but it wasn't really any of those things. It was just differentness. He was more different than any of the exchange students at school. Time after time, Poppy felt she had almost put her finger on the difference, but it always slipped away. And more than once, especially late at night when they were listening to music or watching the ocean, she'd felt he was about to tell her.**

James gaped at Poppy, wondering how she knew.

**And she'd always felt that if he did tell her, it would be something important, something as shocking and lovely as having a stray cat speak to her.**

Most of the boys snickered, but Eric and Thea both grinned at Poppy in understanding.

**Just now she looked at James, at his clean, carven profile and at the brown waves of hair on his forehead, and thought, He looks sad.**

**"Jamie, nothing's wrong, is it? I mean, at home, or anything?" She was the only person on the planet allowed to call him Jamie. Not even Jacklyn or Michaela had ever tried that.**

**"What could be wrong at home?" he said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Then he shook his head dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Poppy. It's nothing important-just a relative threatening to visit. An unwanted relative." **

"What relative?" asked Ash narrowing his eyes at James, who shrugged.

**Then the smile did reach his eyes, glinting there. "Or maybe I'm just worried about you," he said.**

**Poppy started to say, "Oh, as if, "but instead she found herself saying, oddly, "Are you really?"**

"Of course I am" James murmured.

**Her seriousness seemed to strike some chord. His smile disappeared, and Poppy found that they were simply looking at each other without any insulating humor between them. Just gazing into each other's eyes. James looked uncertain, almost vulnerable.**

**"Poppy"**

**Poppy swallowed. "Yes?"**

**He opened his mouth-and then he got up abruptly and went to adjust her 170-watt Tall-boy speakers.**

**When he turned back, his gray eyes were dark and fathomless.**

**"Sure, if you were really sick, I'd be worried," he said lightly. "That's what friends are for, right?"**

**Poppy deflated. "Right," she said wistfully, and then gave him a determined smile.**

**"But you're not sick," he said. "It's just something you need to get taken care of. The doctor'll probably give you some antibiotics or something-with a big needle," he added wickedly.**

Poppy smacked him on the arm, "Oh, shut up!"

**"Oh, shut up," Poppy said. **

James chuckled, "you don't change much"

**He knew she was terrified of injections. Just the thought of a needle entering her skin...**

**"Here comes your mom," James said, glancing at the door, which was ajar. Poppy didn't see how he could hear anybody coming-the music was loud and the hallway was carpeted. But an instant later her mother pushed the door open.**

**"All right, sweetheart," she said briskly. "Dr. Franklin says come right in. I'm sorry, James, but I'm going to have to take Poppy away."**

**"That's okay. I can come back this afternoon."**

**Poppy knew when she was defeated. She allowed her mother to tow her to the garage, ignoring James's miming of someone receiving a large injection.**

Poppy socked him in the arm.

**An hour later she was lying on Dr. Franklin's examining table, eyes politely averted as his gentle fingers probed her abdomen. Dr. Franklin was tall, lean, and graying, with the air of a country doctor. Some body you could trust absolutely.**

**"The pain is here?" he said.**

**"Yeah-but it sort of goes into my back. Or maybe I just pulled a muscle back there or something." The gentle, probing fingers moved, then stopped. Dr. Franklin's face changed. And somehow, in that moment, Poppy knew it wasn't a pulled muscle. It wasn't an upset stomach; it wasn't anything simple; and things were about to change forever.**

Poppy, her family, and James sat rigid in their seats, barely breathing.

**All Dr. Franklin said was, "You know, I'd like to arrange for a test on this."**

**His voice was dry and thoughtful, but panic curled through Poppy anyway. She couldn't explain what was happening inside her-some sort of dreadful premonition, like a black pit opening in the ground in front of her.**

**"Why?" her mother was asking the doctor.**

**"Well." Dr. Franklin smiled and pushed his glasses up. He tapped two fingers on the examining table." Just as part of a process of elimination, really. Poppy says she's been having pain in the upper abdomen, pain that radiates to her back, pain that's worse at night. She's lost her appetite recently, and she's lost weight.**

**And her gallbladder is palpable-that means I can feel that it's enlarged. Now, those are symptoms of a lot of things, and a sonogram will help rule out some of them."**

**Poppy calmed down. She couldn't remember what a gallbladder did but she was pretty sure she didn't need involving an organ with such a silly name couldn't be serious.**

Poppy's mother shook her head at her daughter, "you can't just blow this off"

**Dr. Franklin was going on, talking about the pancreas and pancreatitis and palpable livers, and Poppy's mother was nodding as if she understood. Poppy didn't understand, but the panic was gone. It was as if a cover had been whisked neatly over the black pit, leaving no sign that it had ever been there.**

**"You can get the sonogram done at Children's Hospital across the street," Dr. Franklin was saying.**

**"Come back here after it's finished."**

**Poppy's mother was nodding, calm, serious, and efficient. Like Phil. Or Cliff. Okay, we'll get this taken care of.**

**Poppy felt just slightly important. Nobody she knew had been to a hospital for tests.**

Everyone in the room looked at Poppy like she was crazy.

**Her mother ruffled her hair as they walked out of Dr. Franklin's office. "Well, Poppet. What have you done to yourself now?"**

**Poppy smiled impishly. She was fully recovered from her earlier worry. "Maybe I'll have to have an operation and I'll have an interesting scar," she said, to amuse her mother.**

**"Let's hope not," her mother said, unamused.**

**The Suzanne G. Monteforte Children's Hospital was a handsome gray building with sinuous curves and giant picture windows. Poppy looked thoughtfully into the gift shop as they passed. It was clearly a kid's gift shop, full of rainbow Slinkys and stuffed animals that a visiting adult could buy as a last-minute present.**

**A girl came out of the shop. She was a little older than Poppy, maybe seventeen or eighteen. She was pretty, with an expertly made-up face-and a cute bandanna which didn't quite conceal the fact that she had no hair.**

Everyone (mostly), looked sympathetic.

**She looked happy, round-cheeked, with earrings dangling jauntily beneath the bandanna-but Poppy felt a stab of sympathy.**

**Sympathy...and fear. That girl was really sick. Which was what hospitals were for, of course-for really sick people. Suddenly Poppy wanted to get her own tests over with and get out of here.**

**The sonogram wasn't painful, but it was vaguely disturbing. A technician smeared some kind of jelly over Poppy's middle, then ran a cold scanner over it, shooting sound waves into her, taking pictures of her insides.**

**Poppy found her mind returning to the pretty girl with no hair.**

**To distract herself, she thought about James.**

Ash grinned, "oooh"

**And for some reason what came to mind was the first time she'd seen James, the day he came to kindergarten. He'd been a pale, slight boy with big gray eyes and something subtly weird about him that made the bigger boys start picking on him immediately. On the playground they ganged up on him like hounds around a fox-until Poppy saw what was happening.**

**Even at five she'd had a great right hook. She'd burst into the group, slapping faces and kicking shins until the big boys went running. Then she'd turned to James.**

**"Wanna be friends?"**

Everyone burst out laughing, picturing this.

**After a brief hesitation he'd nodded shyly. There had been something oddly sweet in his smile. But Poppy had soon found that her new friend was strange in small ways. When the class lizard died, he'd picked up the corpse without revulsion and asked Poppy if she wanted to hold it. The teacher had been horrified.**

**He knew where to find dead animals, too-he'd shown her a vacant lot where several rabbit carcasses lay in the tall brown grass. He was matter-of-fact about it.**

"How romantic" Ash teased.

**When he got older, the big kids stopped picking on him. He grew up to be as tall as any of them, and surprisingly strong and quick-and he developed a reputation for being tough and dangerous. When he got angry, something almost frightening shone in his gray eyes.**

Poppy noticed the knowing look in all the Night People's eyes and wondered about it.

**He never got angry with Poppy, though. They'd remained best friends all these years. When they'd reached junior high, he'd started having girlfriends all the girls at school wanted him but he never kept any of them long. And he never confided in them; to them he was a mysterious, secretive bad boy. Only Poppy saw the other side of him, the vulnerable, caring side.**

**"Okay," the technician said, bringing Poppy back to the present with a jerk. "You're done; let's wipe this jelly off you."**

**"So what did it show?" Poppy asked, glancing up at the monitor.**

**"Oh, your own doctor will tell you that. The radiologist will read the results and call them over to your doctor's office." The technician's voice was absolutely neutral-so neutral that Poppy looked at her sharply. **

Poppy's mother took a deep breath before she continued reading.

**Back in Dr. Franklin's office, Poppy fidgeted while her mother paged through out-of-date magazines.**

**When the nurse said "Mrs. Hilgard," they both stood up.**

**"Uh-no," the nurse said, looking flustered. ", the doctor just wants to see you for a minute-alone."**

**Poppy and her mother looked at each other. Then, slowly, Poppy's mother put down her People magazine and followed the nurse.**

**Poppy stared after her.**

**Now, what on earth . . . Dr. Franklin had never done that before.**

Poppy's mothers hands were clenched into fists as she tried to keep her voice from trembling.

**Poppy realized that her heart was beating hard. Not fast, just hard. Bang...bang... bang, in the middle of her chest, shaking her insides. Making her feel unreal and giddy.**

**Don't think about it. It's probably nothing. Read a magazine.**

**But her fingers didn't seem to work properly. When she finally got the magazine open, her eyes ran over the words without delivering them to her brain.**

**What are they talking about in there? What's going on? It's been so long...**

**It kept getting longer. As Poppy waited, she found herself vacillating between two modes of thought. 1) Nothing serious was wrong with her and her mother was going to come out and laugh at her for even imagining there was, and 2) Something awful was wrong with her and she was going to have to go through some dreadful treatment to get well.**

Poppy remembered the first sentence of the book and knew it was the second one.

**The covered pit and the open pit. When the pit was covered, it seemed laughable, and she felt embarrassed for having such melodramatic thoughts. But when it was open, she felt as if all her life before this had been a dream, and now she was hitting hard reality at last.**

**I wish I could call James, she thought.**

**At last the nurse said, "Poppy? Come on in."**

**Dr. Franklin's office was wood-paneled, with certificates and diplomas hanging on the walls. Poppy sat down in a leather chair and tried not to be too obvious about scanning her mother's face.**

**Her mother looked...too calm. Calm with strain underneath. She was smiling, but it was an odd, slightly unsteady smile.**

**Oh, God, Poppy thought. Something is going on.**

**"Now, there's no cause for alarm," the doctor said, and immediately Poppy became more alarmed.**

"I never got why people say things like that when they know it'll have the opposite effect" Rashel mused.

**Her palms stuck to the leather of the chair arms.**

**"Something showed up in your sonogram that's a little unusual, and I'd like to do a couple of other tests," Dr. Franklin said, his voice slow and measured, soothing. "One of the tests requires that you fast from midnight the day before you take it. But your mom says you didn't eat breakfast today."**

**Poppy said mechanically, "I ate one Frosted Flake."**

**A few people managed smiles,**

"I don't think that'll count" Thea said.

**"One Frosted Flake? Well, I think we can count that as fasting. We'll do the tests today, and I think it's best to admit you to the hospital for them. Now, the tests are called a CAT scan and an ERCP-that's short for something even I can't pronounce." He smiled. Poppy just stared at him.**

**"There's nothing frightening about either of these tests," he said gently. "The CAT scan is like an X ray. The ERCP involves passing a tube down the throat, through the stomach, and into the pancreas. Then we inject into the tube a liquid that will show up on X rays."**

"Gah, that sounds awful" Poppy shuddered.

**His mouth kept moving, but Poppy had stopped hearing the words. She was more frightened than she could remember being in a long time.**

**I was just joking about the interesting scar, she thought. I don't want a real disease. I don't want to go to the hospital, and I don't want any tubes down my throat.**

**She looked at her mother in mute appeal. Her mother took her hand.**

**"It's no big deal, sweetheart. We'll just go home and pack a few things for you; then we'll come back."**

**"I have to go into the hospital today?"**

**"I think that would be best," Dr. Franklin said.**

**Poppy's hand tightened on her mother's. Her mind was a humming blank.**

**When they left the office, her mother said, "Thank you, Owen." Poppy had never heard her call Dr. Franklin by his first name before.**

**Poppy grabbed James' hand, too frightened to be embarrassed.**

**Poppy didn't ask why. She didn't say anything as they walked out of the building and got in the car. As they drove home, her mother began to chat about ordinary things in a light, calm voice, and Poppy made herself answer. Pretending that everything was normal, while all the time the terrible sick feeling raged inside her.**

**It was only when they were in her bedroom, packing mystery books and cotton pajamas into a small suitcase, that she asked almost casually, "So what exactly does he think is wrong with me?"**

**Her mother didn't answer immediately. She was looking down at the suitcase. Finally she said, "Well, he's not sure anything is wrong."**

**"But what does he think? He must think something. And he was talking about my pancreas-I mean, it sounds like he thinks there's something wrong with my pancreas. I thought he was looking at my gallbladder or whatever. I didn't even know that my pancreas was involved in this..."**

"_**Poppy, you're babbling," James pointed out, trying to keep his tone light.**_

**"Sweetheart." Her mother took her by the shoulders, and Poppy realized she was getting a little over wrought. She took a deep breath.**

**"I just want to know the truth, okay? I just want to have some idea of what's going on. It's my body, and I've got a right to know what they're looking for-don't I?"**

**It was a brave speech, and she didn't mean any of it. What she really wanted was reassurance, a promise that Dr. Franklin was looking for something trivial. That the worst that could happen wouldn't be so bad. She didn't get it.**

**"Yes, you do have a right to know." Her mother let a long breath out, then spoke slowly. "Poppy, Dr. Franklin was concerned about your pancreas all along. Apparently things can happen in the pancreas that cause changes in other organs, like the gallbladder and liver. When Dr. Franklin felt those changes, he decided to check things out with a sonogram."**

**Poppy swallowed. "And he said the sonogram was-unusual. How unusual?"**

**"Poppy, this is all preliminary..." Her mother saw her face and sighed. She went on reluctantly." The sonogram showed that there might be something in your pancreas. Something that shouldn't be there. That's why Dr. Franklin wants the other tests; they'll tell us for sure. But-"**

**"Something that shouldn't be there? You mean ... like a tumor? Like ...cancer?" Strange, it was hard to say the words.**

Poppy closed her eyes and James' hand tightened on hers, on her other side, Phil took her other hand.

**Her mother nodded once. "Yes. Like cancer."**

When she was done reading Poppy's mother buried her face in her hands.

"I'll read next" James gently took the book from her.

**Thanks for reading! Please R&R. **


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